Boxer Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.’s marijuana use safer than alcohol

A sport predicated on brain damage? Celebrated. A drug shown to prevent cognitive decline? Banned. A billboard calling out such hypocrisy? Priceless.

Boxer Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.’s $900,000 fine and nine-month suspension for testing positive for marijuana is the subject of a new billboard unveiled in Las Vegas today. According to the national legalization lobby Marijuana Policy Project, the billboard decries the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s Punishment of Chavez Jr. for using pot, as Chavez prepares to file a lawsuit challenging the huge fine. The nation’s largest marijuana policy organization paid for the advertisement and calls on NSAC to drop the penalties and ‘stop driving athletes to drink’.

Here’s the graphic of the billboard at 2001 Western Ave., Las Vegas, which references a new poll showing a solid majority of Nevada voters support making marijuana legal for adults and regulating it like alcohol.

MPP “calls on the NSAC to drop the excessive penalties against Chavez and change its policy so that it no longer steers athletes toward using alcohol by threatening to punish them if they choose to use the less harmful substance – marijuana.”

MPP intends to deliver a request to the NSAC in the form of a Change.org petition that currently has more than 5,250 signatures – http://chn.ge/ZqWSuX.

“Issuing such harsh penalties for marijuana does nothing to promote the health and safety of athletes,” wrote Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project in a statement. “If anything, it puts them in danger by steering them toward using alcohol and away from making the safer choice to use marijuana instead.”

“Marijuana is far less toxic, less addictive, and less likely to contribute to violent and aggressive behavior than alcohol,” Tvert said. “The NSAC should change its marijuana policy and stop driving athletes to drink.”

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